16 August 2009

evanston farmers' market = lame

what is it with the residents of Evanston? listening to them, you'd think it'd be the best place on earth for everything. we'd certainly heard overwhelmingly good things about the saturday farmers' market.

due to the Chicago Air and Water Show, we decided to forgo the (much much much) superior Lincoln Park farmers' market and head up to Evanston.

need peaches, cukes, or blueberries? that's good, because about 22 of the 25 stands there have them!

need meat? sorry! only one stand there, "grass started and corn finished." no thanks.

need cheese? sorry! again, only one stand, and he was hawking pre-packaged products from a variety of places, all of which could be found in the same packaging, and for cheaper, at Whole Foods.

need eggs or milk? sorry! none found anywhere.

there were two bakery stands, neither had any customers that I could see (same with the meat stand). No, Evanstonians appear to love their produce, and perhaps I'm projecting but I think a good number of people at the market are vegetarian. Or fruitarians, if the produce on offer is indeed an indication of the prevailing diet of the shoppers.

on the plus side, i had assumed there would be a substantial number of arts/crafts stands. there were none!

we did get a number of things, including some good blueberries. I tried blueberries from, iirc, 7 stands, and 6 were on par (or worse?!) than you'd find at Jewel. The basket we did buy was actually pretty tasty.

i predict zero return trips.

2 comments:

pyker said...

So no salami or such?

zim said...

no salami or sausages at all. the one meat place had simple beef cuts (and maybe pork, i don't recall).

one of the two bakeries has a store / restaurant not two blocks away. that seemed at least a little silly.